So, i've just moved house. It's all gone well, but I have been getting withdrawal symptoms from limited access to the internet. The reason for that is simple. Good old BT love completly disconnecting telephone lines from empty houses, resulting in a lenghty (I've been waiting 3 weeks, 1 day) and costly (£140 + Vat) re-connection of the phone line. It's not actually connected until the 30th October - Hopefully they mean this year.

Being the efficient Gerbil that I am, and not being one for having untidy cables everywhere, I was going to make a start on ethernetting the whole place up in every room like my last and having it all converge on the router. And then it hit me...

...the position of the telephone socket is a pain in the backside. Just look:

On the left hand side of the wall is my access to Internet goodness. Not so far away opposite is some sockets. I think you can see where i'm going with this. I don't want to do the obvious and run a short cable in a straight line, it's messy and a trip hazard. I also doont want to run a stupidly long internal telephone line extension right round to where my lil' router is as that can cause all sorts of interference and speed issues on ADSL here.

There's no power on the side the phone socket is, so the router can't live near it at the moment. Anyone got any suggestions on how I can do what I want, but make it look neat and not cause problems?

Captain Ned wrote:I'm assuming you have no access to the understructure, right?

Any chance you can vampire some power off of that wall heater?

Nah, that wooden floor doesn't want to move (I tried). I didn't think about using the heater's power source. It's hard wired, bit i'm sure you could split the cable down to power both the heater and a single socket (It's not like it's got to run anything to heavy, just a router!) ??

JustAnEngineer wrote:Running new telephone cord through the walls is just as easy as running new ethernet cables.

Yeah, but I don't want to extend the line length internally if it can be avoided. Telephone line extension cables are pretty awful for sheilding etc, so add excess noise to the line = slower broadband However, I have just thought off the back of this - Can I use a twisted pair inside Cat5e cable to crimp on a telephone line connector instead, and carry it over it's own ethernet cable?

I'd be inclined to follow JAE's recommendation as the easiest/safest, but for the best connection you may consider running power in the opposite direction (through the wall) for a DSL Modem. DSL isn't great technology, I'd want to keep the extra lengths involved to a minimum.

Even better and harder, I'd cover that plug with a flat plate, and run a new shielded phone cable from the source to the other side of the wall or wherever you want it. Just don't put it in the attic, you're going to want direct access to thing .

Airmantharp wrote:I'd be inclined to follow JAE's recommendation as the easiest/safest, but for the best connection you may consider running power in the opposite direction (through the wall) for a DSL Modem. DSL isn't great technology, I'd want to keep the extra lengths involved to a minimum.

Even better and harder, I'd cover that plug with a flat plate, and run a new shielded phone cable from the source to the other side of the wall or wherever you want it. Just don't put it in the attic, you're going to want direct access to thing .

Ohhh, I have another idea then. Both of the walls in the pic are hollow. I could (in theory), remove the faceplate off the telephone line, extend it's internal cable up inside the wall, thru the lighting void in the roof space and back down inside the wall the other side. Then, drill a suitable hole and fit a new faceplate?

Gerbil likes a challenge...

Last edited by geekl33tgamer on Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

rcs2k4 wrote:I didn't think about using the heater's power source. It's hard wired, bit i'm sure you could split the cable down to power both the heater and a single socket (It's not like it's got to run anything to heavy, just a router!) ??

If UK electrical code is anything like US code, there should be a junction box in the wall behind the heater. Pop the breaker for the heater & pull it off the wall. Splice a line to the source while leaving connections for the heater (big red wire nuts come in handy). Drill a hole in the stud the j-box should be attached to and run the new cable through that to a spot not behind the heater. Install a new j-box designed for after-installation (has fancy screw-activated wings that tighten the box to the drywall from behind), add an outlet and cover plate, and voila.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

Yup, run the power from that socket up the wall over the ceiling and bring it down next to the phone socket. Should be easy to fish with hollow walls.

The electric heater may be on a different circuit from the plugs, I wouldn't tap in to it.

Cat 5 is fine for phone use. I'm in Canada where the phone plugs are RJ-11 and new houses here just wire everything with Cat5e or Cat6 and RJ-45 sockets. You can then use them for either phone or Ethernet by just switching them around at the panel in the basement as RJ-11 jacks fit in the RJ-45 sockets.

Before you go into too much trouble...where are the next nearest phone and wall sockets (anywhere)? If there is a phone line in the room on the right or a power socket behing the wall on the left, you might be able to route cables without going over the ceiling.

It looks like you are going to have to drill a few holes to avoid leaving wires across the floor (or taping/anchoring cables to the walls and ceiling), so just make sure you're using the closest locations.

"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP"

I wouldn't make any recommendations about electrical wiring based on North American practice. The UK has some rather unusual standards for general mains wiring, including the common use of ring circuits for appliance outlets, which AFAICT permit only one single or double socket to be spurred from each master socket on the ring. We really have no way of telling whether the OP can safely (or legally) tap another outlet from either the existing outlet, or from the heater circuit.

@OP: I think your hand-wringing about signal interference on a phone wire is a bit overwrought. Unless the quality of the conductor from the telecom service tap to that jack is significantly better than what they tend to run over here, another ten feet of wire isn't going to make a difference, and as noted you could always use Cat-5/6 Ethernet cable instead of conventional phone wire. To keep the router out of the way, though, I would suggest wall-mounting the router near the ceiling on the same side of the hall as the mains outlet, then run your phone wire up the other wall and across the ceiling.

Do they sell sticky-backed, "surface mount" conduit for retrofit use in the UK? If so, you could use a run for the cables on each wall, to keep them from getting snagged and broken.

I apologize if I didn't catch this in the earlier posts, but there have got to be rooms on either side of what appears to be a hallway, right? In the room on the other side of the wall with the phone jack I'm assuming you also have power and wouldn't you rather locate your networking stuff in an room under a desk or something instead of in your hallway? Even if you just drilled a 1/2 inch hole large enough to fish a phone wire through to plug into the jack on the wall or even take the plate off, drill in from the other side and add a jack with some single pair wiring between the two. Again, maybe I'm missing something, but that's the direction I would head in if at all possible.